Environments in which an autonomous vehicle may be tasked to navigate may change over time due to changes in patterns of use (e.g., by pedestrians) and road infrastructure (e.g., traffic signs, traffic lights, road markings, etc.). Autonomous vehicles that rely on outdated data or untimely data updates may not be optimally configured to safely navigate in environments (e.g., roadways) in which change is occurring over time. Patterns of use from pedestrians and/or other vehicles (e.g., human driven vehicles) may change and present a danger of collision or near collisions with pedestrians or other vehicles. As one example, some pedestrians may jaywalk to take a short cut across a street. If many pedestrians decide to jaywalk across the street, the danger of a collision between a jaywalker and the autonomous vehicle may be increased. The autonomous vehicle may be configured to recognize and act appropriately in regards to legitimate pedestrian cross-walks (e.g., that are painted or otherwise visually indicated), but may not recognize an impromptu pedestrian cross-walk that exists due to behavior of pedestrians. However, safe operation of the autonomous vehicle or a fleet of autonomous vehicles may require that collisions with pedestrians, even though they may legally be in the wrong by jaywalking, be avoided with the same urgency applied to pedestrians who cross streets at legally designated cross-walks. Moreover, changes in other objects that may be present in an environment may also require the autonomous vehicle to be configured to adapt to those changes. Accordingly, correct and timely classification of objects and/or behavior patterns by objects in an environment over time may be necessary for safe and efficient operation of autonomous vehicles and/or fleets of autonomous vehicles.
Thus, what is needed is a solution for implementation of automatic object classification in autonomous vehicles, without the limitations of conventional techniques.
Although the above-described drawings depict various examples of the invention, the invention is not limited by the depicted examples. It is to be understood that, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Also, it is understood that the drawings are not necessarily to scale.